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Note - most stories are fictional and do not refer to anyone in particular living or dead. True stories will say they are true!

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

THE BEST OF THE WORST OF TIMES Chapter 5

Grandpa's Solution !!

After mulling over how to see
his daughter and grandkids he finally figured out what to do.

He sent word he was coming to
get them - so pack up and be ready to leave.

A few days later he drove up
in a pickup truck with a camper shell on it. He told them to just take their
clothes, and leave the rest for he was going to set them in a house in California and would
supply the furniture and everything else they needed. They didn't take too long
to load up, and they were off.

Grandpa, daughter and George
were in the front seat and seven kids in the back with the clothes.

They drove straight through
and arrived in four days. When they reached the house he had prepared for them,
it wasn't much better than the one they left with the exception it had
electricity, water and an inside toilet.

He gathered up a few more
necessities and they were moved in.

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After
being penned up in the back of that truck for four days the kids were wild when
let loose. These kids being raised in the country secluded from much
interaction with other kids for the most part were not what the grandmother
expected.

They were not the sweet cuddly
kind and after the first meeting, Grandma wanted no more contact with them.

One of George's relatives came
and filled their pantry and ice box with staples and two bags of fruit, and as
they were leaving the kids were out in the yard throwing the apples and oranges
at each other.

The bags of fruit were
expensive to the relatives, but the kids just dumped it out and wasted it. The
relatives who brought it over were short on money themselves and had to
sacrifice to pay for the boxes of food given and, needless to say it was the
last time they did that.

George had almost no money,
and had to get a job but he had farmed most of his life and the only job he
could get was at an auto dismantling yard where he was always having to lift
unwieldy heavy objects. It was hard work but something he could do.

The grandfather made this
statement to George while on the way to California
“with all these kids if you are smart you can become a rich man."

He was thinking back on how
he put his kids to work and took all their money. While one might disagree with
his tactics the one good thing he did was to help his boys to get established
with homes after they were married.

He felt the parents of his
girl’s husbands should do likewise and he wasn't as generous with them.

As time went by more kids
were born and finally they totaled thirteen.

George could no longer take
care of them so the county supplemented his income. It was akin to Bedlam in
the home with all the noise generated by the fussing and fighting among the
kids.

George finally took to drinking as
an escape mechanism, but drink and the hard work finally took him down.

He went to the county
hospital and his strength slowly ebbed away. Several of his relatives were
Christians, and they had discussed becoming a Christian with him but under the
circumstances he was in it didn't seem possible.

There was a black Christian
man who worked in the hospital that ministered to him and after a lifetime of
living in darkness the light of the gospel flooded his soul, and for the first
time in his life he had real joy in his soul.